A CATHOLIC religious education teacher, about to become engaged, blamed an affair with another man for bombarding a 14-year-old pupil with sex text messages, a court heard yesterday, writes Pat Hurst.

Katheryn Roach (24) was branded a "selfish hypocrite" after claiming the break-up of her affair with another man just as she was getting engaged to her fiance was the reason why she preyed on the teenager, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Roach, then aged 23, was still on probation at Thornleigh Salesian College, in Astley Bridge, Bolton, when she began bombarding the youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with 205 text messages in the space of a few weeks.

Roach, of Park View Road, Croxteth, Liverpool, wept as she was given a six-month suspended sentence for inciting a child to engage in sexual behaviour. She had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.